□ Guo Zhilong Zhu Junbiao

On February 24, the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress voted to pass the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Comprehensively Banning the Trading of Illegal Wildlife, Eliminating the Bad Habits of Wild Animals, and Effectively Safeguarding People's Health ", Regulating wild food animals. So, what are the foreign regulations on edible wild animals that we should learn from?

Considering Legislation Based on the Ecological Security Concept

Foreign countries pay less attention to direct consumption of wild animals, but instead regulate it as part of fishing and hunting regulations, food safety regulations or animal welfare regulations. This is mainly due to the following two reasons: one is that there is less habit of eating game; the other is that the hunting certificate needs to pass the animal protection ethics test, and the hunting of wild animals requires reporting and quarantine.

Eating wildlife is just one act that triggers exposure to a source of danger to wildlife, and avoiding this source of danger first requires holistic legislation. Some countries have made comprehensive and systematic regulations based on the concept of ecological balance and ecological civilization.

The laws of Australia and New Zealand are mainly to change the animal protection law to animal welfare law, reasonably control the number of wild animals and avoid cruel treatment of animals. By controlling the reasonable number of wild animals, a reasonable balance can be achieved between animal populations, reducing exposure to humans from dangerous sources. If the ecology between animals is broken, the balance between dangerous sources of animals will also be broken, so the law requires artificial measures to protect and control the number of wild animals. If the handling of wild animals is not civilized, it will increase the chance of exposure to dangerous sources of wild animals. Therefore, the law requires the civilized handling of animals to avoid cruel behaviors against animals.

Furthermore, it is based on the concept of ecological safety to completely avoid dangerous wild animal contact behaviors, such as feeding, hunting, eco-tourism, abandoning sick or injured animals, and compiling these regulations together and publicizing them. All animal related specifications. It is so convenient to guide people to avoid all relevant sources of danger.

Hunting, trading, raising and holding regulations

Although illegally eating wild animals is a risky act on the surface, due to increased public health risks, especially when eating wild animals without hunting and purchasing qualifications, such as bats, civets, and pangolins, other public lives And health and safety and related economic and social security will be threatened, so some countries have made corresponding regulations on hunting, selling, raising, purchasing, and eating of wild animals.

British law provides for the offence of hunting, selling, raising or holding, controlling wild animals. The control of the circulation of wild animals can ensure that the competent authority can locate the pathogen quickly and accurately in the event of infection. At the same time, the United Kingdom has a special criminal conduct ban system. If a judge believes that a certain behavior will lead to social harassment and other consequences, it can issue an injunction. Violation constitutes a crime. This can be used to target wild animals that are at greater risk of eating.

The Irish Wildlife Act stipulates that no meal operator may purchase protected wildlife from an unlicensed wildlife trader; legal purchasers should also keep records. Offenders are fined for the first offense, reoffend, or three or more violations. Although only the behavior of catering providers is here, but not directly the behavior of eating, these permitted wild animals need to go through registration and quarantine procedures to reduce the safety risks of eating wild animals at the front end. The law also provides that the Minister may introduce regulations to prohibit or control the sale of a protected wild animal for a specified period of time in a manner it deems appropriate.

The United States requires that accepting, acquiring, or purchasing any wild animal that is acquired, possessed, transported, or sold in a manner that violates United States law is subject to civil penalties of less than $ 10,000 each time. This is not only a fight against purchases, but also against unpaid acceptance and acquisition. For example, the State of New York prohibits undocumented acquisition, transportation, possession, and participation in trading vultures. For US regulations, the act of buying and eating can be interpreted as buying, and the act of eating for free can be interpreted as accepting or acquiring. The California Fishing and Hunting Code provides that anyone who illegally obtains, possesses, purchases, or exchanges fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, or parts of them for personal gain, is subject to an initial fine of $ 5,000 to $ 40,000, or 1 Imprisonment for up to one year, or concurrent punishment. Reoffenders are fined between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000, or imprisonment for less than one year, or concurrently.

Supporting measures to keep up with administrative measures

To “regulate” the consumption of wild animals, detailed legislation and supporting measures are needed. For wildlife on the white list or wildlife on the black list, food safety issues must be addressed through careful legislation to coordinate administrative and educational measures.

The EU introduced relevant regulations in 2004, requiring inspection of prey and its internal organs. Of course, in order to maintain certain hunting traditions, hunters can be provided with training, and preliminary inspections by the hunters on site can confirm that there are no abnormalities and harms. EU member states can require more stringent measures to consider specific risks.

Scotland's 2012 legislative report gives recommendations on detailed training standards, which must be adhered to even the provision of small amounts of prey, and emphasizes the importance of coordinating safety standards across departments.

The edible wild animals are intertwined with historical and cultural interests such as hunting, and leisure and other commercial interests, which need to take into consideration the norms of health law, animal law, and food law. Italian research suggests that risks include improper handling procedures for trading, removing viscera, peeling, and improper handling of waste from animals. Therefore, regardless of the end use of the wildlife, the slaughterhouse should be treated equally and the work of the slaughterhouse staff should be reviewed by the official veterinarian.

(Guo Zhilong Zhu Junbiao Author unit: China University of Political Science and Law)